Karl Malone and his Jazz men were just that in racing to a
101-80 victory over the Washington Wizards, their sixth straight
victory.

The flip side of Jazzman's card read: "2 Down, 5 To Go." Don't
look now, but the Jazz are staging another unbeaten road show.

After trailing 44-43 at halftime, Utah (14-7) turned up its
defensive intensity and turned Malone loose at the other end,
where he scored 34 points on 13-for-23 shooting.

"We came in here at halftime and coach (Jerry) Sloan told us
that they shot 57 percent and we all kind of looked around like,
`Wow,'" said Jazz center Olden Polynice, who scored a
season-high 10 points. "We knew they shot well, but not that
well. Nothing else was said. And he phrased it sarcastically,
and we knew what he meant.

"So we just said, `Hey, let's get in them.' It wasn't anything
by design; guys just buckled down. That's the beauty of playing
on this team. We don't make the same mistakes over and over
again. We find ways to end it. And that's what we did in the
second half."

That and go to Malone, whom the Wizards chose to defend straight
up. Malone also grabbed 12 rebounds as he led the Jazz in
scoring and rebounding for the 12th straight game.

"We obviously think very highly of Karl regardless of who's up
against him," said Jazz guard John Stockton, who had 11 points
and seven assists. "We have to go through him to be successful.
And he was terrific tonight."

"Ah, that guy (stinks)," joked guard Jeff Hornacek, who scored
21 points. "That's what we expect out of him every night. It's
probably unfair, but our plays are set up to get him shots like
that. And when he makes them, everybody goes good. They've got
to help out on him, and that opens up other guys.

"We've run into some teams lately that have played him 1-on-1
and they did that tonight. And that's what we want. Once he
started hitting that turnaround jumper, it was over."

Once Utah began making stops, Malone worked his magic. The Jazz
limited the Wizards to 17 percent (3-of-18) from the field while
shooting 62.5 percent (10-of-16) in the third quarter and
turning a one-point halftime deficit into a 72-57 lead entering
the final quarter.

"Anytime you can hold a team to 16 percent and you get some
rhythm going, and then you stretch the lead by playing good
defense, then we're going to score points," Malone explained.
"We're starting to stop people on defense. Our offense has
always worked. They used to call it the Predictable Jazz, but
now a lot of people are running it. But our defense is starting
to pick up, and whenever we play defense, we can play with
anybody in the league anywhere."

Rod Strickland scored a season-high 18 points and Mitch Richmond
added 17 for the Wizards, who were coming off a win at San
Antonio but lost for the seventh time in eight games.

Utah swept the season series and has won 21 of the last 25
meetings with Washington.